The 20^th of August 1724 was a Sunday, and as was his wont the cantor of the Thomaskirche in Leipzig – someone you may well have heard of, J Sebastian Bach – had composed a cantata based on an existing chorale which had resonances with the readings of the day, in this case the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18:9-14).

A good Lutheran understanding of the value of recognising one’s own wretchedness is an obvious lesson to take from the reading. Bach (or an anonymous librettist working with him) paired the story with Bartholamäus Ringwald’s hymn Herr Jesus Christ, du höchstes Gut, to which text the librettist has added some interwoven comments; Bach sets much of the text (and not only the first verse as several of his other cantatas do) using the basic chorale melody, as harmonised by himself, but he experiments at various points in the cantata with merging forms typically used in separate movements.

Consider, for example, movement four of this particular cantata (BWV 113, for those who like catalogue numbers). Labelled ‘recitativo’ and scored for Bass solo and continuo – often with the continue sounding in a higher register than the singer – the movement intersperses lines from the chorale with sections of recitative, creatively linking only lightly edited lines from the hymn with commentary passages which combine to make a whole. The text of the verse, as taken from a 1704 hymn book is:

Aber dein heilsam Wort es macht,
Mit seinem süssen Singen,
Daß mir das Herze wieder lacht,
Und gleich beginnt zu springen;
Dieweil es alle Gnad verheist,
Denen die mit zerknirschtem Geist,
Zu dir, Herr Jesu, kommen.

The text set in the movement under consideration is (with the chorale elements emboldened):

Jedoch dein heilsam Wort, das macht
mit seinem süssen Singen,
dass meine Brust, der vormals lauter Angst bewusst,
sich wieder kräftig kann erquicken.
Das jammervolle Herz empfinded nun
nach thränenreichem Schmerz
den hellen Schein von Jesus Gnadenblicken;
sein Wort hat mir so vielen Trost gebracht,
dass mir das Herze wieder lacht,
als wenn’s begünnt‘ zu springen.
Wie wohl, wie wohl ist meiner Seelen!
Das nagende Gewissen kann mich nicht länger quälen,
dieweil Gott alle Gnad‘ verheisst,
hiernächst die Gläubigen und Frommen
mit Himmelsmanna speist,
wenn wir nur mit zerknirschtem Geist,
zu unserm Jesu kommen.

The reason for focussing on this particular movement for now is that the reference in the second line of this verse to the ‘sweet singing’ of the holy Word. The Word of the Lord as it proceeds from His mouth is musical, and the sound of His heavenly music heals us in our sinfulness. One has to wonder whether this was the intention Bach followed when setting this text for a low voice accompanied by continuo sounding higher: perhaps he is trying to echo the sweet singing of the Word in the instrumental accompaniment to the voice which expresses by its very depth the need for restitution.